What is the best way to overturn the HAVA act?

[StraightDope]

For those who are unaware, HAVA was the "Help America Vote Act". It all but mandated these fucking e-voting machines.

The first order of business should be to banish Diebold machines and the like to Valhalla, and pass a law of some sort requiring PAPER ballots, with no exceptions. Once that is done, the election-stealing rightists won't have a fucking prayer.

Thoughts?

[starmaker]

1. LACV

Let Americans Count the Vote

[davidwparker]

2. With the Dems taking over Congress, change the laws ... to paper

ballots.

[Daphne08]

3. Paper ballots with the count in public. Transparency!

I don't care if it takes three days.

Throw these e-voting machines away!

[subterranean]

4. I think all the SNAFUs with the machines today

will make a good case for getting rid of them. On the other hand, it'll probably all be attributed to "human error."

[StraightDope]

5. So, in your estimation, what IS the solution?

I'm just curious.

[subterranean]

9. I agree with you -- paper ballots are the way to go

NOT paper receipts, paper ballots.

That's how I voted today, BTW -- on a paper ballot that goes through an optical scanner. It's not a perfect system, but at least the ballots are auditable and there's no worry about computer breakdowns or "glitches."

[texpatriot2004]

6. You mean the HACK AMERICA'S VOTE ACT nm

[StraightDope]

7. I do...

The one and the same. How best to kill it dead, once and for all?

[Xithras]

8. HAVA isn't the problem. The implementation of HAVA is the problem.

In theory, there's nothing wrong with computer assisted voting. They are genuinely useful for non-English speakers and those with disabilities. If implmented properly, they can also be far faster and more useful than traditional mechanical systems. What is broken isn't the system for casting the votes, but the system for storing and counting them.

What we need are properly designed electronic voting machines that PRINT OUT a BALLOT, not a receipt. These printed ballots can then be scanned using open firmware based optical scanners...with source code analyzed and approved by all major participating parties and with the counting process observed and verified by those same parties. If a recount is demanded, there will be a paper ballot which the counters can review with their own eyeballs...there won't be anywhere in the process where they CAN cheat.

[Skidmore]

10. Replace it with a Uniform Voting Act.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2602382&mesg_id=2602382